Broken-Glass, Bexley Red-Zone, Royal Commission, CTV Collapse

12.07.12. Pages Rd Bridge seen from New Brighton Rd

12.07.12. Avon River, upriver view from Pages Rd Bridge. Sandbagged stopbank left, New Brighton Rd beyond stopbank right

12.07.12. Pages Rd Bridge, downriver view, Port Hills. Mt Evans, Banks Peninsula beyond

12.07.12. Pages Rd Bridge, downriver view, Avon River stopbank & Wairoa St, CERA house demolition site. Port Hills beyond

12.07.12. Quake trashed, Pages Rd Bridge abutment wall, Owles Tce

Bexley red-zone, Royal Commission, CTV collapse focus. 12.07.12. Pages Rd Bridge along Avon River stopbank: My earlier stopbank trek was interrupted when my Samsung camera died. Using my new Samsung I snapped broken-glass where vandals threw stopbank stones at red-zone ruined- house windows & doors. Some doors & windows were shattered by quakes, but star-splintering on toughened glass were stone-thrower giveaways.

CERA vandals would demolish red-zone ruined-houses. Little salvage work done. Demolished red-zone houses were dumped at Burwood Dump, Bottle Lake Forest Park. (2014. Luke would convert his builder / joiner training & work experience into red-zone salvage-work).

I trekked along the cracked, sandbagged stopbank to liquefactioned Jack Hinton VC Reserve. Downriver from the Reserve, I saw that high-tide Avon River was above Bexley Rd level. That could cause flooding & liquefaction at Bexley Rd & Waitaki St 

12.07.12. White, plastic, tape cordon. Avon River, stopbank view, broken window, abandoned house, red zone Bexley

12.07.12. Steel mesh fence cordon. Avon River, stopbank view, quake trashed garage, red zone Bexley

12.07.12. Avon River, stopbank view, CERA house demolition site, red zone Bexley Rd

12.07.12. Red zone Bexley, Avon River, downriver view, stopbanks. New Brighton Rd left

12.07.12. Jack Hinton VC Reserve, stopbank, downriver view, Avon River level above Bexley Rd right

 

12.07.12. Jack Hinton VC Reserve, memorial plaque by Avon River

Why had Council planned & consented all those houses in Bexley swampland next to Avon River? Quake-shaking, liquefaction & flooding ruined the lot. The ruined houses were finished off by vagrants, stone-throwers & CERA vandals.

I circled back to Pages Rd Bridge via ruined Bexley Rd, Waitaki St & Pages Rd.

Bexley Rd: Liquefactioned as I'd seen it months before: ruined-houses interspersed by CERA demolition-sites. Overgrown-gardens, quakemire everywhere, some tree branches broken by recent snow. Four inspectors, wearing yellow hard-hats & orange Hi-Vis vests, toted clipboards & wandered along the muddy-footpath while checking red-zone-ruins.

12.07.12. Quake trashed house, awaiting demolition, red zone, Bexley Rd

Bexley Rd: a demolition house-window's threat-sign:

               DANGER!
DEMOLITION IN PROGRESS
Strictly No Unauthorised Access!
      Trespassers Prosecuted!
----------------------------------------------
This Dwelling and all Salvage
Materials are Property of Southern
                                     Response

Any Unauthorised Removal of
Property will be Treated As Theft!...

If any Suspicious Behaviour is seen please
contact the Police: Phone 111

Southern Response insurer was quick to demolish & protect its salvage-materials, using cop scare-tactics, but slow to settle with claimants. Southern Response would become notorious amongst claimants as "Southern No Response."

Later on, insurers would blame slow EQC's muddling for years while deciding on overcap-housing claims, thus enabling insurers' slow responses to claims. EQC had to first motivate an undercap $100 000 claim for repairs via Fletcher & pass on overcap $100 000 repairs, or rebuilds to insurers. As EQC was slow, insurers dealing with overcap settlements would be slower, as insurers had to wait for EQC's muddling to finish. Never mind homeowners' frustrations, waiting for slow EQC & slower insurers.

Meanwhile lawyers circled, waiting for irate homeowners to demand court rulings for EQC's delays & insurers' delays. Group-actions pending... April 2015, Auckland lawyers, Crossland & Sheppard would hold a meeting in Christchurch for irate homeowners wanting group-action against slow insurers who lacked "good faith" resolutions.

12.07.12. Quake tilted power poles. Red zone, Bexley Rd cleared of liquefaction mud, houses abandoned

12.07.12. Red zone, abandoned house, Bexley Rd

12.07.12. Red zone, CERA house demolition site, Bexley Rd

Waitaki St: Ruined like Bexley Rd, CERA demolition sites too. Window & door glass, broken by vandals, both roads.

12.07.12. Yellow, hard-hatted, orange, Hi-Vis vested inspectors, checking red zone, abandoned housing, Bexley Rd

12.07.12. Quake tilted power poles. Red zone, Bexley Rd / Waitaki St

12.07.12. Red zone, yellow, Super Silent pump, Waitaki St

 

12.07.12. Red zone, abandoned house, Waitaki St

 

Mitcham Pl: I watched a demolisher bouncing his yellow-digger on a rubble-pile while demolishing a house.

12.07.12. Yellow digger. Red zone, CERA house demolition, Mitcham Pl

12.07.12. Red zone, abandoned house, Waitaki St

12.07.12. Red zone, CERA house demolition site, Waitaki St

12.07.12. Red zone, sewage-mud flooding, Waitaki St / Waikare Ln

12.07.12. Red zone, abandoned house, Waitaki St. Green Orion sticker on window

12.07.12. Quake tilted power pole. Red zone, house demolition site, Pages Rd

Pages Rd: Still liquefactioned, rutted, flooded & poorly repaired due to SCIRT's slowness. More CERA house demolition-sites. Ruined- businesses & ruined-shops west of Pages Rd Bridge: Jasper Lee, Mad Dog Pizza. Quake-ruined & vandal-broken windows & doors. Glass everywhere. I snapped ASIAN 4 KIWIS ruined-restaurant, glass-door broken open, rubbish on floor. The ruined-businesses & ruined-shops would be demolished.

12.07.12. Red zone, abandoned house, broken window, Pages Rd

12.07.12. Red zone, Jasper Lee, broken windows, Pages Rd. Jasper Lee would be demolished

12.07.12. Red zone, Pages Rd Bridge going east

12.07.12. Mad Dog Pizza, broken windows, Pages Rd. Mad Dog Pizza would be demolished

12.07.12. Red zone, abandoned, Asian 4 Kiwis restaurant, Pages Rd. Asian 4 Kiwis would be demolished

 12.07.12. Quake crack between carpark & abandoned, Asian 4 Kiwis ghost restaurant, Pages Rd. The restaurant would be demolished

*Trekked Pages Rd, Bexley Rd, Waitaki St, Mitcham Pl. 86 images.

While ruined-houses were demolished by CERA & rents rocketed, indigents slept on New Brighton beach dunes in sub zero-temperatures. Yet CERA minister Brownlee, PM Key & housing minister Heatley said there was no housing-crisis!

Royal Commission of Inquiry: structural-engineers couldn't agree why CTV multi-storey collapsed in a heap of broken-glass & broken-concrete, killing 115 people in the 22 February 2011 Quake.

Engineer Rob Jury reckoned it was weak concrete-columns needing confinement steel-reinforcement. Californian engineer William Holmes disagreed saying it was joints between concrete-columns & concrete-beams causing CTV collapse. (The Press 12.07.12).

The Press 13.07.12. More engineers mystified why CTV collapsed:

CTV design-engineer Alan Reay blamed the cumulative effects of quakes for CTV collapse. Reay knocked the DBH report on CTV collapse. In future Reay would become notorious for wriggling out of any responsibility for the CTV collapse!

Reay's lawyer, Hugh Rennie passed the buck to design-engineer David Harding, as Harding had worked 300 hours on CTV design, versus Reay's 3.5 hours. Rennie also knocked the DBH report.

Engineer Nigel Priestley blamed the non-central, side shear-wall for CTV collapse, like the non-central, side shear-wall causing Hotel Grand Chancellor to fail.

So far, engineers didn't know what caused CTV collapse!

Coda:

January 2014. Most of Bexley's red-zone ruined-houses along Waitaki St, Mitcham Pl, Bexley Rd to Jack Hinton VC Reserve were demolished by CERA. The red-zone ruined-shops on Pages Rd  by Pages Rd Bridge  were all demolished by CERA.

December 2017. After an investigation, NZ cops said there would be no prosecution of CTV design-engineers Reay & Harding. Cops had chickened-out saying there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute. No one accountable huh? So much for NZ justice!

Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.

See Engineer shattered after CTV collapse (The Press / Stuff Co).

See Pressure on Brownlee to intervene (The Press / Stuff Co). 

See Insurance claim delays unconscionable lawyers say (The Press / Stuff Co).

See CTV engineer faces disciplinary action (The Press / Stuff Co).